Shares of major enterprise software companies climbed as investor worries that OpenAI could upend their businesses appeared to ease.
According to Stocktwits, a group of widely held software names — ServiceNow (NOW), Workday (WDAY), Adobe (ADBE) and Salesforce (CRM) — were on the rebound as the perceived threat from OpenAI weakened.
The move was especially sharp for ServiceNow. According to the report carried by MSN, ServiceNow rose nearly 10% on Friday and was one of the top gainers in the S&P 500.
The backdrop here is a debate that has hung over the software sector for months: whether fast-advancing artificial intelligence tools from companies like OpenAI will eat into the demand for traditional business software. The fear is that if AI can automate or replace functions these firms sell — from customer management to human resources to creative tools — their growth could slow. That anxiety had weighed on the stocks.
Friday's rally suggests at least some of that pessimism is reversing, with investors reassessing how much of a danger OpenAI actually poses to incumbents in the near term. The sources do not detail a specific catalyst behind the renewed optimism beyond the easing of the OpenAI threat.
Why it matters: enterprise software firms are some of the most valuable and closely watched names in the market, so swings in how investors weigh the AI threat to them can move major indexes like the S&P 500 and signal how Wall Street is pricing the broader disruption from artificial intelligence.